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Mod Men

In 1962, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architect Arthur Witthoefft won the AIA's highest honor for a home he built in the lush woods of Westchester County. Having fended off a developer's wrecking ball, Todd Goddard and Andrew Mandolene went above and beyond to make this manse mint again.

The entry, during renovation.

A view of the entry shrouded by overgrown greenery, before landscaping had begun.

With the exception of the front door and its adjacent glazing, all of the glass sliders and their frames were torn out and replaced.

Major renovations were applied to every surface in the house, including the ceiling, which was made of metal mesh lath covered in layers of hand-troweled plaster.

The living room, with vintage furnishings by Harry Bertoia, Paul McCobb, and others, overlooks the heavily wooded site, which adjoins a protected watershed. Goddard and Mandolene replaced the original tile floor with a glossy coat of resin and restored the original ceiling.

“On a bright day, you have to wear sunglasses in here,” Mandolene says. A freestanding travertine-and-steel fireplace, open on all four sides, divides the living and dining areas.

The home was saved by its in-built solidity: In 1958, a writer described it as mixing “the fragility of a mannequin with the durability of a stevedore.”

The master suite contains the home's only non-vintage furnishing: a BoConcept bed.

White brick exterior of Goddard and Mandolene’s home post-renovation.

Obstructive radiators were removed; here, a view of the fireplace dividing dining and living spaces.

Despite their fidelity to the original structure, the residents made small changes, notably in the kitchen: The wood-veneered island was moved to create more circulation space behind it and finished in white lacquer and stainless steel. Wood cabinetry above the island was exchanged for a steel ventilation unit.

All of the glazing along the house’s 95-foot-long western elevation can be opened to the out of doors.

A previous owner, rather than replacing the imploded air vents in the cement slab, had installed radiators, chewing up the diminutive white ceramic tiles and ruining the visual impact of the glass.

During renovations new heating-cooling and plumbing systems were embedded within.